Michaela Munds and Jacob Munds, two newer additions to the Xavier community, have elected to follow their passions. Xavier has had female football players (Mai Le, ’10, Amanda Harker, ’16) and male cheerleaders (Michael Solitaria, ’13, Logan Baron, ’13, Ryan Campbell ’13, Chino Lara ’19). Xavier even has its first girl wrestler, Ellisa Jimenez ’22, on Xavier’s first wrestling team! Back in the day, Xavier had a couple of years of co-ed soccer. But the Munds shattered stereotypes as siblings. The sister and brother shared that people often react to them by saying they switched sports.

Michaela is a junior playing left tackle for the Junior Varsity football team. She recounts that her male teammates have reacted well to having a girl on the football team, but are sometimes too afraid to hit her. One of the hardships Michaela faces is the locker room situation. She is separated from the boys. So on the occasions the football boys and coaches have impromptu meetings in the boys’ locker room when Michaela is suiting up in the girl’s locker room, she is unaware of the meetings that take place.

Michaela feels that women in football are underestimated owing to the stigma that girls “can’t hit” due to a smaller size and the belief that girls are not aggressive enough. Michaela, however, has consistently proven her abilities on the field that contradict that belief. She hopes to continue to get time on the field and put in the work necessary to win for both the team and aspiring female football players.

Jacob Munds pictured on the far left with his Cheer Team.

Freshman, Jacob Munds, Michaela’s younger brother, has been cheering competitively for six years and now cheers for the Junior Varsity Cheer Team at Xavier. Jacob was inspired to cheer by other male cheerleaders that he saw in videos on YouTube.

Nowadays society is more welcoming towards male cheerleaders than female football players. For Cheer, it’s really about the spirit, not the stereotypes. Jacob said that his Cheer team was welcoming and encouraged him during tryouts. He hopes to eventually have a one-man stunt in Cheer. Jacob expressed that he loves to cheer his sister on during the football games so much that he lost his voice.

Team Munds–a passionate pair of Saints.

The Munds siblings have created their place in Xavier history helping to break down the stigma that girls can’t play football and boys can’t cheer. These Saints stayed true to themselves by following their passions. Go Saints!